To Save the Saviour
by DaenerysTargary3n
Summary: What if Hermione is not all that she seems in the books? After she and Severus are thrown together in traumatic circumstances, they embark on a lifelong quest to save Harry Potter and the world from Voldemort and his ideology. A secret, shocking love story told through unspoken memories so Harry can learn the great secret and sacrifices that led to his victory over Voldemort.
1. Prologue

**To Save the Saviour**

 **By DaenerysTargary3n**

Author's Note:

Firstly, the Harry Potter universe (inc. characters, places, plots, quotes from films and/or novels) does not belong to me, though I wish it did. Secondly, this fanfiction features graphic sexual (and violent) content commencing in Chapter Two so please be advised and if this is not to your taste or likely to upset or offend, please stay far, far away from this story. This is my 3rd Harry Potter story and my first Severus-Hermione pairing (the other two are Harry-Hermione – please do have a look for _Lady Diligence_ and _A Great Deal of Bravery_ on my profile page if you would like to explore what I do with a different pairing) so I am experimenting slightly but this is also a pairing I believe in more than any other in this 'verse, so please do review and offer criticism but I am pouring my heart and soul into _To Save the Saviour_ and am very excited for the 15 instalments of this story and the sharing of them with you. Please enjoy and review and favourite away!

DaenerysTargary3n

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Prologue:

 _Two hours after the fall of Lord Voldemort_

"Wait, Harry, where are you going?!" Ron bellowed after him as the Chosen One walked away from the carnage laid out in the Great Hall.

The Saviour of the Wizarding World had no more to give to the corpses lying in wait for their friends and families to claim them and remove them from their sordid surroundings. The Weasley family had lost a son – Fred – in the fight and all were bawling and heartbroken around the young man's corpse, all except George, his twin brother, who stood aside refusing to take any comfort from his sister's arms which held him in her tight embrace. Harry walked past Lupin and Tonks, who were weeping over the body of Andromeda, who had pushed herself in the way of Dolohov's curse that would have taken her daughter and son-in-law away from little Teddy forever.

So many souls had been blotted out of existence this night on both sides in the decades old fight between good and evil. Good had lost so many battles – the Potters, Sirius, Dumbledore, Moody, _Snape_ – but Harry had dealt the final blow that won them the war. It was finally over and he could just get on with the rest of his life. Or, he could as soon as he found some peace and the fallout from the final battle blew over. He had heard his name called out and people wanting to talk to him, thank him (of all things) and some even wanted pictures of him as he turned every corner in the castle he used to call home. All Harry yearned for was some peace and quiet and sleep before he faced the onslaught of the mob.

As the corridors grew colder, Harry became aware of his surroundings. He was in the catacombs of the castle and close to the portion of the building that was under the Black Lake…the dungeons. He had seen the memories of Professor Snape that he had bestowed upon him when he had succumbed to Nagini's bites. The man was a hero and had given his life to save him, simply because he was Lily's son.

Harry then grew curious and wound his way through the dreary halls that extended after the potions classrooms and eventually found himself at the deceased Professor's door that led to his old office and behind, to his quarters. Harry's curiosity about the man he had always believed to be his enemy had peaked in the aftermath of viewing his most closely guarded memories. The man would never return to his sanctum and no one would think to look for The Boy Who Lived in the former headmaster's office. As he pushed the door open, he chuckled remembering how Slughorn refused to take the Potions professorship if he had to inhabit the same quarters as his predecessor. Harry knew that no matter how many Potions professors came, none would ever relish the dankness and isolation of the dungeons as Snape had.

The office was as he remembered it. The walls featuring potions ingredients too toxic or valuable to be kept in the classrooms and the personal potions tomes of one of the greatest brewers in history. The desk was simple but vast, covered in pieces of parchment and various shades of scarlet ink for marking. Behind the worn emerald green chair there was an ebony door that led to the professor's chambers. Harry gulped in anticipation as he clasped the silver doorknob and turned.

For a set of rooms in the dungeons, Snape's personal chambers were surprisingly lavish but with a homely spin that surprised Harry. Harry had expected walls decorated in Snape's precious Slytherin colours and with sparse pictures and furnishings that were rarely used and attractive but uncomfortable. Instead, the living quarters of the domicile were large for only one inhabitant and had a light mint coat of paint with a striking black moulding. There were no portraits or photographs of people on the walls but beautiful Scottish landscapes of rolling hills and wide, open lochs. The fixtures were soft and well-used, matching the décor in a delicate grey that could have been Slytherin silver were it a few shades darker. The couch looked too inviting to resist and after setting up a few basic wards that Hermione had insisted he put up no matter where he was sleeping, Harry threw himself onto the couch and let himself simply be.

Just as Harry was on the cusp of sleep, he heard a commotion from behind the second door leading off the large room.

"Someone is already here…" Harry murmured to himself, grabbing his newly repaired wand, and adopting a defensive stance.

As the door opened, revealing a young woman around his own age, he relaxed somewhat.

"Who are you and what are you doing down here?" Harry asked aggressively, not caring about the girl's teary eyes or blotchy face.

"My parents are dead. I think they died during the fighting and I have nowhere else to go." She replied fearfully, cowering from her interrogator.

"For which side?"

"I'm sorry?" She sobbed.

Harry stepped forward aggressively, "For which side did they die? Who were they fighting for?"

"For you, Harry…they fought, always, for _you_. Ever since you were found alone while your parents lay dead, and all through the years as you fought through Devil's Snare, basilisk attacks, dementor attacks, the Triwizard Tournament, dreams sent from Voldemort, Horcruxes. All through that they were with you and protected you as best they could. Now they're dead and all you can do is interrogate me!" The young woman hissed, her eyes venomous through her tirade.

Harry backed up until he was sitting back on the couch, holding his hands up in surrender, "I'm sorry. I had to make sure. You're old enough to fight. It's been a long day and I was just looking for some solitude, I guess, when I came here. I wasn't expecting anyone else to be here and I put wards up and everything so I'm sorry I came across hard. I don't think I knew your parents though. Who were they? What were their names? How is it you know so much of my life, bits that aren't public and never will be, but I have never met you or even know who you are?"

Finally looking up and seeing her, Harry noticed the young woman's beauty. With smooth, jet-black hair but warm hazelnut eyes and a lean, muscular body, she was stunning, even though she had recently been crying. Her blood orange robes clung to her lithe figure perfectly and she was only an inch or two shorter than Harry. Her wand was strapped to an elegant leather holster on her left forearm with silver lettering 'MES' embossed onto the fabric.

"Wait, sorry, I didn't ask. What's your name?" Harry asked, having completed his onceover of his svelte companion.

She smiled shyly as though she guarded a great secret and glided over to the armchair before she gracefully sat down.

Wiping her eyes that continued to shed tears for her lost parents, she was so hoarse from weeping she almost whispered, "Now you're asking the right questions, Potter. I know you because we've basically grown up together, though I was ever in your shadow, unseen and unheard. I am the greatest secret that this castle has kept. This place is the true Chamber of Secrets for it has been my palace and prison since the day your parents were murdered. My parents pledged their lives to your protection and in doing so they gave my childhood up for you. I felt my father's death four hours ago, and my mother's shortly after Riddle died. My father was your greatest protector, though he too was that in secret. My mother was your greatest strength and it is her sacrifice alone that has kept you alive for seventeen years. As for me, my name is known to no one still living, and as I said it has been kept secret since my infancy for my family's safety's sake. I am Morgana Eileen Snape and my parents were Severus Octavian Snape and Hermione Jean Snape."


	2. Chapter 1

Author's Note:

Thank you so much for the splendid feedback for the prologue! It figuratively blew my mind (that's a HIMYM reference) and I can't tell you how much it means when my inbox lights up with favourites, follows and reviews. I'll just mention meja9201 as the first reviewer and thank them for their compliments – it was very moving to me to read, so this chapter is dedicated to you. Now, this story might have irregular updates but I'll do my utmost to keep them coming. I have written the end already and some of the middle but I couldn't wait to share it, so perhaps posted the prologue prematurely. I will now work at pushing the other chapters out for you to read. Enjoy!

DaenerysTargary3n

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Chapter One:

" _I am Morgana Eileen Snape and my parents were Severus Octavian Snape and Hermione Jean Snape."_

There were no words. No words that could outline the shock spreading from his ears to the very tips of his extremities. Had he truly just heard this waiflike creature claim to be the daughter of Snape and…Hermione? And Hermione Jean _Snape_ , at that!

"I'm sorry," Harry spluttered, "I've had a bit of a day – a bit of a lifetime, truth be told – and I think you just said that you were my best friend's and my Potions professor's daughter. Plus, on top of that, you think they were married? She was my age for Merlin's sake! That's disgusting!"

Morgana began to back away from Harry, whose bewilderment had begun to turn to feral outrage. She knew this new information would be hard for him to digest, particularly on this day, but she too had had 'a bit of a day' and would not stomach this boy defaming her parents.

"Harry Potter, don't presume to think you're the only one in agony today! As I said, my parents – both – are dead! Today I became an orphan and they're _all_ I had in this world! So, don't you dare speak to me like that and don't ever talk about them like that again!" Morgana retaliated, tears washing her face anew.

Harry immediately raised his arms out to placate her from afar and said, "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'll hear you out – there's obviously a story there. I can't say I believe what you've said and Hermione _can't_ be dead. Someone would have said something to me or I'd have seen her body but Snape…is dead and I'm sorry – whether he was your father or not, he was obviously someone important to you and he's gone, so I'm so very sorry."

Morgana fell onto the sofa that she knew was there instinctively and sniffled, "That's kind of you to say. Sort of. Mama is dead, Harry. I felt her go just like I felt papa die."

"Hold on," Harry interrupted, unnerved by her choice of words, "when you say felt…"

"I felt them die. I don't know how papa died – I'm kind of hoping you can tell me – but I felt his mind move on. After that, I waited to feel mama go too. It was inevitable after papa's death, for reasons I'll tell you later once you've processed slightly more. She told me it would be."

"But how can you 'feel' them die?" Harry asked, skimming over her father's manner of death now he knew she had not actually experienced Nagini's attack by proxy.

"I am highly skilled in Legilimency and Occlumency," Morgana smiled at Harry sadly, "and had you continued with your lessons with papa longer you would have been told that when a person reads and is read by the same mind or minds for an extended period, you can sense their mind when it is close. Mama, papa and I have been communicating by mind arts since I was a young girl – it was the only safe way to talk sometimes. So, when they were in the castle grounds fighting I could feel them. They blocked me so I couldn't hear the specifics but when it went quiet, I knew."

Just as Morgana started to weep again, Harry sat beside her and took her hand. He still doubted her premise that Hermione and Snape were somehow married and had raised a teenager his age, despite Hermione only being months older. However, he couldn't deny that she sounded in the past minute so much like he imagined Hermione's daughter might have and her snarl when she defended her parents' relationship could have been a Snape family trait.

"Morgana," Harry began, not letting go of her hand, "I can't believe what you say is true. I just can't. Hermione is our age and Snape was her teacher and he loathed her – publicly and without hesitation. He simply couldn't have been married to her, so you can't be their daughter and I don't know what curse or memory charm you've been under but what you're saying is your past just can't have been."

"I'll explain it, Harry," Morgana chuckled, "then hopefully you'll understand but you were always slow on the uptake so it might take a while. So, I hope you've nowhere to be for the next couple of hours."

Harry's jaw dropped. He was about to sling an insult right back at his companion when he caught the slightest upturn at the corners of her lips and was reminded of Snape's churlish smirk.

"Please do explain. People will probably start looking for me if I don't appear soon but I've no desire to be found."

Morgana smiled, pleased at his acquiescence, "I'll tell you their story but I'm not going to sit here and narrate it like a poxy fairy tale. I'm going to live it with you. It's all been saved for you to see, Harry. Mama and papa knew you'd find me eventually and need to know the particulars of how you came to survive as long as you have. That all starts with how they met and how they fell in love and then how they protected you."

She pulled him up by the hand that he forgot was clasped in hers and began to lead him towards a mahogany closet that was neither ornate nor worthy of note. Stopping before it she stared at him deep into his emerald eyes.

"Harry, I know you have your own memories of mama and your adventures with her and what she was like to you but to know her fully and truly you have to see papa's memories of her. All the memories in the pensieve belong to papa and some – the ones in the beginning particularly – are unpleasant and I've never seen the ones from before I was born. I'm not especially keen on seeing how my parents met but," Morgana's stare intensified as she gripped Harry's hand more firmly, keeping him wedged between her and the cabinet, "mama made me promise that when you found me and you were told of her true past that I would reveal their story to you and the truth about your life. That…has been the mission of my own: to tell you how you (the saviour of the wizarding world) was saved."


End file.
